Neighbors in Religion: Ending the violence is a New Year’s resolution I hope we keep

Here we are, on the first day of 2015. It sounds a bit strange to be saying 2015. Seems like we just started dating our checks with the year 2014, and here we are, already in a new year.

I am not big on New Year’s resolutions. They never seem to work but for a few days into the new year for me. Like losing a few pounds. I go into the year with a made-up mind to do this losing weight thing. But try as I may, a few days into the year, the resolution falls by the wayside.

Still, the new year brings with it promises of a fresh, new start. Whatever we didn’t get right in 2014, here is your chance (and mine) to try again to get things right.

And while I don’t have any resolutions to make, I do have a few wishes that I would like to see come true.

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At the top of my list is the end of violence in our community. I would like to see the drive-by shootings come to a halt. I would like for people to able to take evening strolls in their neighborhoods and not be afraid that some gunman in a speeding car would shoot them.

I’d like to know that parents won’t have to worry that their children won’t come back home when they go to the neighborhood park for an innocent game of basketball.

I would like to know that the laughter of children won’t ever again be interrupted by gunshots.

I would like to see us live together in peace, respecting and treating others the way we want to be respected and treated. It isn’t too hard to do.

As we face this new year, we have no idea what lies ahead. Some of us will have mountains to climb; some will have to forge rough rivers. Still, others of us will have to walk through many a dark valley. That’s just the way life is.

But you don’t have to go it alone. I know someone who will climb the mountains with you; cross the rough waters with you; and go with you through the dark valley. He is our God in heaven, the Father of us all.

While I don’t mean to preach to you, I would like to recommend that you to seek Him and get to know Him. If you do, you will see that no matter what this year throws your way, you will be able to come through it with His help. That’s just the kind of friend He is.

Sistah to Sistah Connection

The Sistah to Sistah Connection invites all ladies to join them at their first meeting of the year at their new location at the Parkway Professional Building, 6151 Miramar Pkwy., Suite 204 at 10 a.m. on Jan 10. The topic of the meeting is “Do You Know our Purpose?”

If you want to know what your purpose in life is, you are invited to attend this meeting, the first of a series of teaching on “How to Fulfill Your God-Given Purpose and Vision for our Life in the Entire 2015.”

‘Uncle Sol’s Women’

Rabbi Simeon J. Maslin, a prominent spiritual leader and scholar, will be the guest speaker at noon on Jan. 6, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, 137 NE 19th St. in downtown Miami. Maslin will speak on his new novel, Uncle Sol’s Women.

Although Maslin has been a prolific author of Judaic and scholarly works, this is his first novel. The book spans decades and traces a family’s changing fortunes over the course of many years and many generations.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

If you go, reservations are required. Call the temple office at 305-573-5900. Or, you may email: info@templeisrael.com. A light lunch at a cost of $10 per person will be available with advance reservation.

Buddhist Center open house

The community is invited to open house at Drolma Kadampa Buddhist Center Miami from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 10. The open house will include a meditation session from 11 a.m. to noon, with resident teacher and modern Buddhist monk Gen Kelsang Norbu.

Gen Kelsang Norbu said, “I would like to personally invite anyone and everyone in the Miami area to come and enjoy this spiritual place … as a place of rest and respite from the busyness and hectic pace of modern life. This place belongs to the people of Miami, as palace of meeting, a place of peace, meditation, spiritual learning, discussion, practice, development … and growth.”

The center is a member of the New Kadampa Tradition — International Kadampa Buddhist Union, which is dedicated to helping people find peace in their busy lives. The center is at 1273 Coral Way.

Learning Institute open house

The University of Miami’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute will have an open house from 10 a.m. to noon on Jan 8 on the Coral Gables campus.

The institute offers adults aged 50 and older, a chance to explore topics from music appreciation to quantum physics, to learn a new language, or try painting or wire sculpture. There are also social activities and discussion groups on topics of interest like current events and investing.

No homework, no note taking, and no pressure. Just fun.

For more details and to RSVP for the open house, call 305-284-6554 or go to: www.miami.edu/osher.